Danny's Eidetic
by mistark
Summary: Post PP. Vlad returns to Amity Park seeking revenge on Danny for ruining his life. After weeks of torture, all Danny can remember is Sam's face... Can he pull it together and save himself or will Vlad triumph?
1. Chapter One

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom…. And this is the only disclaimer I'm putting in…. it's for the whole story so get used to it.

Danny's Eidetic

Vlad had finally lost it. His nemesis normally held back in their fights, rarely doing much damage. Normally. Danny coughed up a large globule of blood and spat it onto the ground. He'd run out of energy to fly, and could barely charge up an ectoplasmic blast. Sure, Danny had wreaked Vlad's plans for world domination, but it was Vlad that had exposed himself as a ghost to the world. Vlad had lost any chance of getting with his mom all by himself.

Danny thought Vlad had left Earth for good, but it appeared the ghost had some unfinished business in Amity Park. Lost in his dazed thoughts, Danny didn't notice until it was too late Vlad's pink tinged fist flying towards his face. It slammed into him with humongous force, its charged nature burning the soft skin of Danny's cheek as it made contact. He flew backwards several metres before connecting rather painfully with the pavement. Blood oozed over his face as he fought desperately for consciousness.

It was a battle he was losing, however. The world dimmed into a pain filled haze and Vlad's giant form standing over him became a dark fuzz. The evil ghost's words struggled to reach him.

"You'll pay, Daniel. Be sure of it. I'll make you wish you'd never crossed Vlad Plasmius."

Danny gave one last exhausted puff and passed out.

* * *

Vlad watched in satisfaction as two rings of light spread over Phantom, revealing a severely beaten Danny, curled unconscious on the pavement. He gave him one last blast for good measure, before grabbing the boy by his leg and flying off. So intent on the success of capturing Phantom, he didn't notice the small child gazing out her window at him in horror, or hear the dull click as Phantom's ankle dislocated.

He didn't stop until he reached the remains of his old mansion, which had been stripped by debt collection agencies to compensate for the many businesses that had crumbled in Vlad's absence. Although his eyes tightened at the sight, he ignored it and phased through the foundations till he reached an underground corridor that would be reached by no human. He reached a hand into a silver box indented in the wall, and a red beam washed over it, before camouflaged doors slid open to reveal a lab and living quarters.

His secret lair.

He strolled into the room, tutting as he saw the red smear Danny's blood was leaving on the lino as he dragged him across it. With a sigh, he lifted the teen until his blood soaked form was off the ground and proceeded into the silver room. As the door slid shut behind him, he typed something into the computer console and the machines dull monotone echoed throughout the room.

"Ghost shield activated. Cloaking mechanism activated. Ecto-signature secured."

Vlad's cruel laugh followed it. "Now they'll never find you."

Seeing the halfa's injuries were beginning to heal, he placed him none to gently on a metal gurney and chained his arms and legs down.

While he searched the cupboards for a certain device, Danny stirred and groaned.

* * *

Light burned his eyes, to match the thumping headache that raged behind them. He still hurt all over, and could tell by the way his head spun and his stomach churned that he'd lost a fair amount of blood. _Who was it this time?_ He wondered. _Skulker? Ember? The Box Ghost? _A dark haired figure drifted closer, and his first thought was Sam, most likely with a glass of water and a damp towel. But no… this figure was too tall to be his gothic girlfriend. He lifted his arms to rub the blood from his eyes so he could see clearer, but to his surprise they were heavily manacled, and he was unable to move them an inch. Panicking more than a little, his head shot up to view the rooms only other occupant, and stars swam in his vision as he beheld the last person he expected to see – Vlad.

He barely had time to blink before a sharp prong jabbed into his side and a few hundred volts of electricity alerted him to the fact that Vlad had just shocked him with the Plasmius Maximus.

"ARGH!!" he screamed. "What the hell are you doing, Plasmius?"

"Making sure you don't get any ideas, Daniel" Vlad spat back. "I can't have you escaping can I? Those cuffs are ghost proof, but I need to be sure. I have much planned for you _little badger_."

Danny's mouth dropped open as he took in both Vlad's words and his tone. His rival had always used a civil voice when speaking to him, but all he could hear now was snarling hatred. His hands started to shake as he realised the implications of what Vlad was saying. He gulped and attempted to come up with a witty comeback, but none were forthcoming. If anything, he shook even more, rattling the chains that held him to the gurney.

"Yes Daniel, quiver with fear. No-one can find you here, and I have all the time in the world to make you suffer for what you did. I'll make you beg for death and send your remains to your dear mother as punishment for rejecting me."

The ghost placed a hand on the cool metal that lay beneath Danny, and it began to glow with a pink light. The teen's eyes widened as the metal rapidly heated up, until his thin shirt was smoking and red burns appeared on his exposed skin. He dug his teeth into his lip to stop himself from screaming, trying desperately to summon his ice powers before he remembered that his ghost powers were gone for a few hours thanks to Vlad. He yelped in pain as his shirt finally burst into flame, and the white hot metal that was now against his already tender back melted into his skin. Red dots appeared in his vision as the sheer agony pushed him past his limits and a ragged yell ripped his throat.

* * *

Vlad pulled his hand away as Danny's eyes shut and his screams died in his throat. Even unconscious his body continued to quiver, as the heavy burns that covered more than half his body took their toll. He didn't need to look to know that they wouldn't be healing yet, with the Plasmius Maximus suppressing his ghost half, it would be a while before Phantom felt any sort of relief.

He flicked the burnt remains of Danny's white shirt from his raw skin before wheeling him into a pitch black room, and locking the ghost proof door behind him. He chuckled evilly at the thought of what the halfa would go through when he came too.

Moving to another room, he put the jug on for a cup of tea, and settled down with his cat, Maddie, to watch the news.

* * *

A few hundred miles away, a young girl was crying profusely as she repeated to Mayor Foley what she had told her mother not long before.

Tucker sat down in shock as he took in what the girl was telling him. She left the room a short while later. Tucker immediately picked up the phone, pressing '2' to connect him to Sam's cell phone.

"Sam! Vlad's back… he's kidnapped Danny! Meet me at the Fenton's pronto……"

**Author's Note: Eidetic means memory more or less. It is English. **

**This is my first fic for DP, so please, if you have time, leave me a review. Flame me if you want. Or say nice things ; )**

**Blondine**


	2. Chapter Two

Danny Eidetic

Chapter Two

_Five Weeks Later…_

Bright, fluorescent lights flickered into life for the first time in a while. Thanks to his ghostly DNA, Vlad possessed excellent night vision, however the chamber which he now entered, had been shrouded in such intense darkness on his last visit that even he had been unable to make out the dark drawings that covered the floor, the walls and the ceiling. He suppressed a gasp as thousands of haughty Sam Masons glared at him. He bent a little closer to examine what exactly they had been drawn with. He sniffed delicately, and the rusty scent of blood flooded his sensitive nasal passage. Vlad grinned wickedly, eyes rolling back in their sockets as he pushed both hands in the drawings, rubbing the carefully traced lines together until his hands dripped with green tinged blood.

The maniacal laughter that followed this action roused the individual lying hunched in the corner, and a metallic squeaking could be heard beneath the laughter as the stand the IV hung from followed the figures movement. The needle buried deep in the boys arm kept him alive – but just. He hovered so close to starvation that Vlad no longer bothered with spectral handcuffs, for the emaciated teen barely had the energy to sit up – let alone use ghost-powers.

Danny slowly turned over, eyes watering in pain as light, long absent from his view, burned his retina. But the sight that met his eyes was far more torturous than the brightness. Vlad stood over him, with an unshaven face, dark rings under his eyes, a very tatty suit and blood drenched hands. His blood. Had he have known speech, had he of known Danny Phantom, he might just then have cracked a witty one liner. But these things were beyond him. He had but one word in his vocabulary: badger. But this word itself inspired fear. It was the word the monster before him uttered before the pain began.

"_Badger….." _ The monsters voice pushed through the thumping of his heart in his ears. Danny closed his eyes, willing himself out of the room, trying to remember a time without the pain. A girl's face entered his mind. Her purple eyes intense as they stared at him. She did not speak, and Danny wondered who this beauty was. Tears trickled down her cheeks, but hers was the face he saw when he sought comfort, her loveliness a bane in the cruel world he inhabited.

Hypnotised by her face, he barely felt the pain as the monster dragged him by the wrist with enough force to break the brittle bones that attached his arm to his hand. His raw and bleeding skin scraped over the metal floor, wounds reopening and nerves screaming in protest. But Danny was a world away, safe and happy with the black haired girl and more importantly, oblivious to where the monster was taking him.

He eventually became aware as several electrodes were implanted in his flesh, their metallic hooks gaining purchase on his tendons in the absence of his muscles. Danny moaned and writhed, tears slipping from his eyes as they burrowed in. But he knew this was not the worst of it. He tried to block the memory of the last time he had been in this room, but the high voltage that coursed through him beat him to it. His frail body jerked and twitched and his eyes rolled back in their sockets.

Time passed.

His mind was growing fuzzy as the torture continued. Where was he again?

A face with green eyes and white hair flashed in his vision, but it was gone and forgotten before he could identify it.

The girl's face again, this time with a look of determination and hope.

Finally, his thoughts crashed to a halt as darkness flooded in and he lost consciousness.

* * *

Vlad switched the camera off as Danny's trembling body stilled. With no apparent rush, he switched off the generator power and the barbs in the boy's skin neutralised. He then wheeled the teen back into the dark room and threw him without care to the floor.

He returned to the video room. The man selected a tape from only a week before and pushed it into the player. The figure on it was almost unrecognisable. He was clothed only in the singed remains of jeans, which were stained with blood and fused to his skin in many places. The rest of his skin was a mottled collection of black and purple bruises, weeping wounds, half healed cuts, and ragged burns. Both eyes with swollen shut and his hair had been completely burnt away. Only Vlad could have known that this was Danny Fenton.

Vlad's eyes lit up as a familiar scene played out. Since the boy didn't have anymore skin to mark, he had decided on electrotherapy. It had worked surprisingly well. The half-ghost had enjoyed almost two hours of it before the boy passed out. In fact, rewatching the tape had been enough to keep his mind off his next session with the boy, which he was prolonging so as to draw out his suffering as long as possible. It was more difficult of course, now that the boys accelerated healing had slowed to an almost human rate, but that could not be avoided.

He pressed the rewind button, and continued replaying the tape over and over as his eyes became more and more bloodshot. Eventually his head dropped to his chest as he fell asleep, dreams of his next causing Danny pain pulling a smile onto his lips.

* * *

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY?

A tear slid down Sam's face as the poster on her milk carton brought on a fresh wave of pain. It had been so long since he had disappeared, and they still had no idea where he was. There was no telling where Vlad might have taken him, or if he was even still alive. A survey of his mansion ruins had proved fruitless and scouring the city had had similar results. She wiped her eyes and poured some milk into her quadruple shot coffee. An all day search was the only thing that would uncover Danny, and she needed lots of caffeine if she was going to manage this.

Giving up on stemming the flow of tears, she carried her mug over to the table, where she would sit; not talking to her parents on either side of her, drinking away her misery. She never made it to the table. Instead, her drink slipped from her hand, smashing loudly on the wooden floor and splashing her Doc Martins with hot liquid. She paid this not the slightest attention however, as the image in her mind persisted. It was Danny. Or at least she thought it was. His hair was gone, and his face was bruised, bleeding and swollen so it was hard to tell. Only his blue eyes gave any hint of his identity. Sam staggered and fell as the vision pressed down on her. "_Badger…._" She heard through the fog of her mind. Danny's expression became terrified, and she cried out, from both the agony in his face, and her own pain.

Her sight returned, greeting her with her own cut and bloody hands. She'd fallen onto the shards of her broken cup. Brushing the blood away, she jumped to her feet and sprinted out the door. A cry tearing from her lips.

Her parents exchanged a glance as she ran off in the direction of Tucker's house.

A thousand miles away, Danny whispered a single word. "_Sam…"_

**So what do you guys think? Did you like it? (I will accept yes/no reviews….)**

**Am I being too cruel to poor Danny?**

**Blondine**


	3. Chapter Three

Danny's Eidetic

Chapter Three

He had to focus. The gentle squeaking of the hinges betrayed the door's opening, and Danny had to force himself to breath naturally as the monster creep closer. He had been doing this for the last few days, and had almost perfected the art of feigning unconsciousness. The monster shook him roughly, and for once no wounds opened as his ever thin body rattled. Danny purposefully kept his body limp, and it seemed the monster had yet again bought it, and there would be no session today either.

He waited a long moment after the door swung shut again, before slowly sitting up. Using touch in the absence of light, he located the IV fluid bag and ripped the thick needle from him arm. Then, using this needle he pierced the bag and quickly brought his mouth up to the hole. Revitalising liquid flooded his throat, and he wept as it eased his pain. There was something more as well – a dull tingle had started up in his veins, increasing each second, and Danny gasped as he felt a modicum of strength return to him. This was what he had been waiting for.

Sliding towards the door, past the smeared drawings of the girls face – Sam her name was – he crouched in the darkness to wait until the monster returned. He had to find the girl.

* * *

Sam rocked back and forth on her bed. Her arms were wrapped around themselves, and her eyes saw nothing as she willed a vision of Danny to come.

A few days previously, she had glimpsed Danny. Not just glimpsed, but_seen_ him. But since then… nothing. She tried desperately not to think of the possible reasons for this as her movement increased tempo.

Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. Leaping to her feet, she grabbed her car keys off the table and flew to her car. She had a vague idea of where she was going, but it wasn't until the sign: _Welcome to Wisconsin_ appeared that she was certain. She was going to Vlad's. No matter that they had already searched the rubble that remained. There was this… feeling… that could not be ignored. Sam pressed her foot harder onto the accelerator, and the speedometer needle leapt forward.

_I'm coming, Danny._

* * *

Vlad was in a terrible mood. He had checked yet again on Danny, only to find the boy _still_ unconscious. To vent his rage, he had decided to watch one of the earlier tapes of Danny, this one in particular he found most enjoyable for all it's shortness. He and Danny were sitting in a room together – or rather Vlad was sitting and Danny was lying strapped to a workbench. His own voice came through the surround sound speakers he had taken the effort to install.

"What is your name?" He was holding a red hot dagger to the boy's stomach, an … enticement to answer.

The boy however, merely looked confused. He opened his mouth, and a meaningless mumble of disjointed words fell out.

"Please … fudge… with… oh…" He sucked in a breath. "Tree… runs… me…"

He fell silent, as if he had suddenly forgotten how to talk.

Vlad raised his eyebrows, certain the boy was jesting him. Sure, a few thousand volts passing through ones brain was bound to do some damage, but this? He was forgetting everything. Vlad's eyes lit up at the thought of what else he could achieve with such treatment. Whether he could record an entire sequence of the performance Danny was giving. His eyes narrowed. Perhaps the boy was simply faking. There was a way to make sure.

"I asked you a question. You failed to answer." He then plunged the dagger into the teen's stomach and left it in there.

Danny's mouth moved soundlessly and his limbs spasmed. He tried again to form a complete sentence, to scream for help,but what was help again? And who would help him? The only being he knew was himself and the monster in the room. Tears rolled down his face before he passed out from pain and blood loss.

"The boy cannot remember _anything_!" He crowed with triumph.

A blue screen appeared as the tape ended.

The present Vlad sunk a little deeper into the couch. Really, there was nothing like a home-made torture film to settle him down. In fact, the couch was becoming more and more comfy. He didn't know when he'd last slept but it looked as if it was all catching up on him. He reached to dim the lights, mistaking the system mains for the light switch as drowsiness washed over him. The green light on the wall changed to red and the monotonous voice gave a status update: "Ghost shield deactivated. Primary systems shutting down." Vlad simply snored in response.

* * *

It was hard, waiting in the darkness. Although he had come to crave it, for it freed him from pain, and was so different from the harsh brightness that the monster carried with it, it seemed in this moment to press down on him, the anticipation of what he was about to do hanging heavily upon him. He knew, if this failed, the monster would end him, but he was no longer sure that was a bad thing. Dull memories of moments in the light room were enough for him to welcome death as a freedom, and the clarity he hadn't felt in a long time was giving him an edge.

He heard footsteps on the other side of the door, but refrained from pressing his ear against it, as the ectoranium coating on the inside would cause him even more pain. Instead he waited. It wasn't long before the monster turned the door handle and whispered _"Badger…"_ Without hesitation, Danny leapt at him, shoving him into the cell and slamming the door behind him. If he couldn't get out, Danny reasoned, neither could the monster.

It was then that he heard voices in the other room. Creeping towards the door, he peeked through the crack until he ascertained that the room was empty. He walked in. The entire wall was taken up with a flat screen television, and Danny recognised the monster on the screen… and could it be himself? But that individual had hair… looking closer, and comparing the wounds that he and this tortured individual had, he was forced to believe he was watching himself. At the mercy of the monster. He looked around and saw similar black tapes on the floor. Instinctively knowing that these must contain something about who he was, he gathered them up.

How to get out of here? Surely it wouldn't be as simple as walking out the front door? He could try something he'd seen the monster do… screwing his face up in concentration, he visualised himself floating in the air. He ignored the pain that racked his body, and the fatigue that clawed his bones and focused on himself flying. To his utter amazement, when he opened his eyes, he was a foot off the ground. _Only a ceiling to pass through_ he thought. This too would require intense concentration. His body and the tapes pushed against the barrier of the roof, and the strength and willpower required to push both of them through left him gasping. But he wasn't out yet. Beyond the roof were several feet of compact dirt until finally he was inhaling crisp night air.

The effort that phasing had taken proved too much, and he fell against his will to the strangely hard, black ground, eyes closing at their own volition, and a trickle of blood leaking from the side of his mouth.

But he was free.

* * *

Night had fallen by the time Sam reached Vlad's. Of course, the billionaire _had_ to live on the outskirts of the town. She slowed the car as the ruins of his once magnificent mansion came into view. So intent on her destination was she, that it wasn't until the last second that she noticed the small bump on the road ahead of her.

She screeched to a halt, bumper settling inches from the object blocking her path.

Sam jumped out of the car to see what it was, as nasty feeling creeping into her stomach.

Red and black skin was illuminated in the car's headlights. A slight black fuzz covered the maimed dome of the teen's head. His body was skeletal and hollowed and completely still.

But Sam knew exactly who it was.

"DANNY!"

**DUN DUN DUN!! Wow so Sam has found Danny at last… Any theories on what's going to happen?**

**Love to hear from you,**

**Blondine**


	4. Chapter Four

Danny's Eidetic

Chapter Four

Sam's eyes flickered up to the rear vision mirror, fixing on the figure in the back seat. In the dim light of the car's interior his horrendous injuries were unclear, and she could kid herself into believing he was in better shape than he really was.

Hauling Danny into the car had been no problem, as his slight form had little weight. She had stared at him for a while, not quite able to believe he was there. After a long moment, she shook herself out of her reverie, and bent to examine the multitude of black squares that had surrounded her boyfriend on the road.

They were videotapes. Wondering exactly how Danny had appeared on the middle of the road with twenty or so tapes, she loaded them into the car and speed off in the direction of Amity Park. On the way, she called the Fenton's and Tucker who would meet her at the hospital.

* * *

It had been a week since she'd found Danny. Most of his burns had healed, leaving pink scars, and his flesh was no longer raw and open. A tube down his throat and into his stomach meant that he had even put some weight back on; in fact, it had been a while since his skin had a sickly yellow tinge.

As his wounds had healed, his hair had regrown, until its spiky ends crept past his eyebrows. All and all, there wasn't much difference between this Danny and the one that had disappeared a few months previously. Except that he hadn't woken up. The doctors said his was in a self induced coma, and other than provide his body with nutrients, there was little they could do for him. The body naturally did this after experiencing major injuries to both the head and body, and he would wake when his body felt it was no longer in danger. When he had first arrived, they had been shocked at the extent of his injuries, but once he had been hooked up to an IV he had started to heal at an accelerated rate.

There had been no point in putting plaster on the multiple fractures in his wrists, ribs, arms and legs, since he was healing so fast. Instead they had strapped the bones in line to ensure they healed straight. In a matter of hours, scabs had formed over the deep gouges all over his body, and the medical team had watched in wonder as hair began to pour out of his skull.

Along with trace amounts of ectoplasm in his blood, the doctors had also uncovered several unknown narcotics, which had caused multiple organ failure. Also, they had suggested that Danny was likely to be addicted to these substances, and would have to suffer through withdrawal when he awoke.

He was truly a medical miracle in their eyes, and only the stern glare of Maddie Fenton, and the hawk like way his family and friends watched over him prevented further study than strictly necessary.

And so it was that Maddie, Jack, Jazz, Sam and Tucker were all seated around Danny's perfectly motionless body. They knew most of what he had been through, having watched the horrifying footage Vlad had taken of their sessions. The tapes had all been neatly labelled and so they had watched them in chronological order, getting more and more distressed as they saw their hero being tortured, as he slowly forgot who they were, who he was, and even how to speak. There was no telling what sort of mental state he'd be in when he woke. They had no idea how he had escaped, or the sequence of events that had led to him appearing on the road. Would even he know?

Meanwhile, the search was on for Vlad and his mysterious lair. It seemed unlikely Danny could have travelled far in the state he was in, so the special ops teams were searching the two mile radius in which he had been found. So far, radar and even Fenton-made ecto-dar had failed to find any trace of the subterranean hideout.

The Fenton's fully expected Vlad to show up once more and kidnap Danny, as he'd made his intentions rather clear in the many tapes. To prevent this, a ghost shield surrounded Danny's hospital room, with armed GIW operatives guarding all windows and doors. They weren't about to lose Danny again.

* * *

Sam's cell phone suddenly rang, its blaring ringtone intruding on the quiet yet tense atmosphere of the room, and causing all it's occupants bar one to jump in fright. She hastened to answer it. Her mom was downstairs will lunch for her, Tucker and the Fenton's and wanted help to carry it up. Sam and Tucker left Danny to his family unwillingly, having long lost their appetite. Danny could wake at any time and they wanted to be at his side when he did.

As they accepted the food from Mrs. Manson, they heard a loud crashing upstairs, and screaming. Dropping the basket without hesitation, they flew up the stairs to Danny's room. Was Vlad back?

* * *

Danny was back in the light room. He was under the grips of the latest hallucinogen that the monster had injected into the crook of his arm. Foul demons leered and swiped at him, their fetid claws catching his skin as he lacked the energy and strength to evade them. He screamed and reached desperately and in vain for the safety of darkness, but he could not find it. Suddenly a white light burst around him and he sat up and opened his eyes.

* * *

Sam and Tucker had only been gone a few minutes when Danny's heart rate monitor had started beeping faster and faster. The Fenton's had leapt to their feet, to stand closely around Danny, searching for any indication that he was about to wake up. Then his normally frozen body twitched violently, tossing and turning as he let out a loud moan. The moan soon escalated into a scream, and a moment later, Danny sat up and opened his eyes.

* * *

He woke up screaming. His stomach was lurching and his head was spinning. Several tubes connected him to various machines, and, recalling the IV needle of the monster he ripped them out in horror. He'd been recaptured. How bright the room was that he was in. His eyes watered in response and he blinked rapidly to clear his vision. Three indistinct figures came into focus, standing around him. He recoiled in terror. Their voices came to him as if from the end of a tunnel, their echoing quality lending no sense to them. An arm reached out towards him, and fearing some hellish new treatment he threw himself away. He would rather die than be tortured one more time. _No more pain. _Huddling in the corner of the room he put his arms over his head, rocking back and forth, his mind not able to take the stress of the situation. Danny babbled incoherently, forgetting in his distress, that he was able to phase through the walls. His entire body shook, head thumping loudly in response to lack of mind-altering drugs and a white haze rose over his vision.

He didn't realise that his family stood only a few feet away, gazing at him in horror. The door crashed open, and Sam and Tucker stumbled in.

"Danny!" Sam screamed. She rushed immediately to his side.

Hearing her voice, his head whipped up. "_Sam…_" he whispered, before passing out in her arms.

**Come on… did anyone guess that would happen?? What'd you all think? Action packed enough or no??**

**Does anyone know how to put those line things in?**

**Blondine**


	5. Chapter Five

Danny's Eidetic

Chapter Five

They all turned to look at each other, shock plain on their faces. Then they stared down at the unconscious Danny, who rested in Sam's arms.

The brief moment of silence was broken as two nurses barged into the room. "We heard screaming…." They said, before taking in the scene. One helped Sam put Danny back onto the bed, while the other ran for a doctor.

When the doctor departed again, saying that Danny was sleeping naturally now, she had secured his arms and legs to prevent him thrashing or leaping from the bed again. The Fenton's left the bindings in place, knowing it would be a sign of how much Danny remembered if he was able to phase out of them.

* * *

It was quiet as each person attempted to articulate their thoughts. Jazz spoke up first.

"He recognised Sam! That's something right? But then he didn't know who we were and he was really freaked out and he totally spaced out and I really don't know if he was breathing and do you think he knows that he has ghost powers cos he didn't try to phase through the walls to get away from us or maybe that was just because subconsciously he did remember us and he was repressing his own ability or- "

She broke off her non-stop speech as Jack placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry Jazzy-pants, Danny will be fine. He just needs some time."

At that moment, Danny groaned and flexed his arms. They all turned in expectation, but his eyes remained firmly closed.

"Maybe…." Maddie began. "Maybe only Sam should be here when he wakes up next. He definitely recognised her, and maybe it will let him deal with this all better." The words caused her pain as she imagined leaving Danny's side when he was awake, but she knew it was best for him.

Danny moaned again, eyes moving under their lids, hands clenching and unclenching. "Sam…" he murmured. They could all see he was getting closer to waking, and went to wait in the observation room, which was separated from Danny's current room by a large on-sided mirror. Sam moved her chair closer, stroking his face as he tossed around.

* * *

"_Badger…"_ The monster called to him. The flames crept closer, licking at his skin, alighting his hair. He screamed as their heat stole searing patches of his pink skin. His scream petered out as his raw throat refused to form coherent sound. The fire burnt the oxygen _in_ his lungs and he passed out.

When he returned to a higher level of thinking, he was aware of a beeping off in the distance. Curiously, he moved towards it. As he neared it, the memory of Sam crashed into him. He was sure it was real. He had found her. And she had known him, and called his name… Danny… he rolled the name around in his thoughts. It was as if he had suddenly realised the word sitting on the tip of his tongue. Danny … Fe-… Danny… Pha-… he grew confused as he tried to recall the rest of his name. Who was he?

The beeping surrounded him, and he began to feel sensation in his limbs, became aware that they were quivering. He was quite unable to still them, and instead relished the unfamiliar warmth that surrounded him. Then he grasped that someone was in the room with him, as his ears picked up the sound of someone's breathing. He felt a warm hand stroke his cool forehead. A hand that felt familiar, and yet forgotten.

Danny sighed and opened his eyes.

**So… I know it's ridiculously short… but I'm going on holiday for a week so I won't be able to update till then so I thought I'd give you guys this bit before I left. Thank you so much to my faithful reviewers, RenesmeeScarlet, Invader Johnny, Neko Danny, hawkflyer667 and others. You all inspire me to keep writing.**

**Blondine**


	6. Chapter Six

Danny's Eidetic

Chapter Six

The lights were dimmer when he opened his eyes for the second time. Less time passed before the room swam into focus. The first thing he saw was her.

It was the face from his dreams, her face. Sam's face.

"Sam?"

She smiled and nodded, looking slightly relieved.

His hands shook as he reached out to touch her face. _How strange. _The bindings on his wrist stopped that. _What?! _He panicked, looking down at the straps, which reminded him so much of the Specter Deflector Manacles the monster had bound him in. He gave a wild yell, forgetting even that Sam was in the room as he sought to free himself. Shortly, green energy surrounded his thrashing fists and the straps were burnt away. He breathed a rather large sigh of relief.

Sam reached forward and grabbed his hands, holding them tightly in hers.

"Do you remember who you are? What is your name?" Her eyes were gloriously intense as they looked into his. He could get lost in eyes like these. They were so beautiful. Each tiny pane of color was like another facet of her soul, bared to him as she stared straight at him.

"D-Danny" His mouth struggled to form the new word. Sure, he could say Sam until he was blue in the face, but anything else… It all seemed to be shut off from his mind. Who he was, who she was to him, his existence prior to the monster.

"Oh thank God, Danny! I was so worried, but you remember!" She threw her arms around him. He stiffened in her embrace at first, for encounters such as these with the monster had left him screaming in pain. But all he felt was a strange, light feeling in his stomach, and a mysterious heat in his cheeks. He briefly fought with the mad desire to kiss her, but the impulse was too strong, and he couldn't resist pushing his lips to hers.

She immediately responded, leaping onto his lap and kissing him back with fervor.

When she finally pulled away, tears were sliding down her cheeks. She wiped them away hurriedly. Danny gazed at them for a moment, before remembering the moisture coming from his own eyes, after a particularly nasty session. His heart thumped as he had the thought that he had hurt her as he had been hurt. He swept his eyes over her slight form, looked for any sign of harm. But she seemed to have no injuries.

At that point, Danny noticed the two arms that came from his body. They were attached to him, they moved when his brain told them to move, and they could feel the soft weave of Sam's clothing underneath his fingertips. This all seemed to indicate that these were indeed his own arms. But to Danny, they were a foreign being. The smooth, unbroken skin was pale and shimmering in the dim light. He flexed his arm experimentally. He watched corded muscles contract beneath the perfect skin. _They're mine!_ He then reached up and pulled the white gown he was wearing away from his chest. Gone were the large ropey scars and weeping burns. He ripped the rest of the gown off, exposing his legs, to see if the pattern continued.

At which point Sam hurled the blanket back over him, crying: "Danny!"

He stared up at her, trying to figure out what it was he had done to upset her. Her face burned crimson and her delicate hands covered her eyes.

With no idea what he had done to cause this reaction, Danny looked away. His eyes fell on a stack of black tapes. He remembered those. The bright memory of his escape came back to him, the room with the large screen, the tapes that held something important, something lost in him. He had seen the monster put them into the recording device that was pointed at Danny during his sessions. There were so many tapes, too many for Danny to recall. Had he really had that many sessions?

* * *

Sam felt Danny shiver beside her, and she followed his line of vision, before realizing it was fixed on the tapes that had been found with him.

"Danny…" Sam began. "Do you know what those are? I found them with you. On the middle of the road. Do you… Do you remember me finding you?"

She stared at his face, trying to unlock his thoughts by his expression, because, although he seemed to both their names, something was still off about him. His face remained remarkably blank as he contemplated her words. Emotionless. The silence deepened until Sam began to worry. His eyes were no longer focused on her; in fact, he seemed to be in a world of his own. Not a very nice world, she amended, as Danny's arms and legs began to twitch, his face remaining impassive.

"THE MONSTER!!" he howled suddenly, causing Sam to jump in her seat. "He… I…"

Sam waited patiently for him to continue.

"Tricked him. Locked him in darkness."He gasped.

* * *

__

He heard footsteps on the other side of the door, but refrained from pressing his ear against it, as the ectoranium coating on the surface would cause him even more pain. Instead he waited. It wasn't long before the monster turned the door handle and whispered "Badger…" Without hesitation, Danny leapt at him, shoving him into the cell and slamming the door behind him. If he couldn't get out, Danny reasoned, neither could the monster. 

"Monster?" Sam asked quietly. Her voice would have been lost without his enhanced hearing. "Who is the monster?"

Danny jerked towards her voice.

"I…"

Memories rushed at him. Fragments; tormented, broken pieces of his past.

_  
The monster's face. The same but different. Eyes a little smaller, saliva gone from the edges of its mouth, hair neat and tidy. Speaking to him. "And Daniel! What a surprise it is to see you here! Aren't you and Maddie are lucky I happen to have another mansion in these mountains!"_

_  
The monster in the distance. Talking to a large man in an orange suit. A familiar orange suit… Danny felt somehow… connected to this big man._

_  
The monster in his other form – cape swirling, pink energy dancing around his body. _

"I knew him… before… before the light room…"

Sam stroked his hair. Tears were streaming down her face. Danny remembered why she cried now. She was sad. He reached up to wipe her tears away, sitting up as he did so.

"_Ah… Daniel… you think you can stand in my way? Your power is nothing compared to mine. Join me, and I will make you the most powerful half-ghost the universe has ever seen-"_

"_Thanks, but no thanks Vlad. You can't have me or my mom. Go get yourself a cat!"_

"VLAD!"

His fists crashed down on the bed in his rage. The green energy glowing around them burned easily through the sheets and thin mattress. It was too weak to melt the metal base properly. Danny's hands sunk much slower through the semi-molten layer of metal, which gouged his wrists and left slivers of rapidly solidifying metal all over his skin.

"Gah!!" he cried, unable to stop himself. Blood poured from his veins, emptying them out onto the crisp white sheets of his bed. The crimson pool rapidly spread, unhindered by Sam's attempts to restrain it.

There was a crash, and Danny looked up.

Two women and two men ran in. He recognised the big orange man immediately. "Dad!" Something clicked in his head. "Mom?!" Memories were flooding in as fast as his blood was flowing out.

He vaguely thought that he should have started healing by now…

_  
Why?_

"Ja-"

The world dissolved into a pain confused blur, and he succumbed to the gathering darkness.

* * *

**  
Oh I'm nasty aren't I? It's happy (late) angst day… um… so I sort of hit a wall for a while… thanks to my muse : Iron Man the movie. Somehow convinced me that I needed to type this all up immediately after watching it.**

**  
Review, and tell me what you think!**

**  
Blondine**


	7. Chapter Seven

Danny's Eidetic

* * *

Chapter Seven

No one spoke. Danny's screams echoed in the small hospital room. They were agonising to listen to. Maddie looked sideways at her sons face, processing his expression, anxious as to his reaction.

Long, half-healed scars stretched up Danny's wrists, a chilling reminder of his latest brush with death. The doctors had staunched his blood, and given him a transfusion, but it had been a few days until the Fenton's had known whether or not he would pull through. His withdrawal from whatever Vlad had been giving him had had drastic effects on his body. He experienced the usual shaking and excessive sweating that accompanies drug withdrawal but also his body's ability to heal was slowed down greatly.

While the medical team attempted to placate his family by telling them it was lucky that these symptoms had not appeared until after he had healed from his initial torment, but it was little comfort when Danny's position was so precarious.

Thankfully, the next morning, the doctors had removed the bandages to find that the wounds from the melted hospital bed had closed, and were well on their way to healing.

* * *

Danny had come to in a different bed, this time surrounded by his entire family and his two best friends. He recognised them all. A tentative grin broke his face as they all smiled warmly down upon him. His memories of his family and friends had returned, with very few gaps evident. What was missing from his mind however, were the events that had taken place in Vlad's cave. Danny recalled his capture, but from there onwards, a hazy mist covered the memories, which only vague feelings of pain and fear and the occasional flash of Vlad's face penetrated.

Danny himself had no idea what exactly had happened to him, or the circumstances of his escape. What exactly had happened to Vlad?

The only way to find out it seemed, was to recover the memories that eluded him, and to do that he had to watch the tapes.

And so it was that Danny was lying, propped up on pillows, watching himself be tortured. For everyone else, it was worse than the first time they had seen them. They would have excused themselves, but they needed to be there for Danny to help him comes to terms with what he was watching.

Gone was the Danny who had found difficulty in expressing emotions. His pleasant, boyish countenance aged as it was contorted by his emotions. Rage, pain, anger, fear, sadness… his fists clenched and unclenched, nails digging into his palms until he drew blood. He wept in his mothers arms as the tapes were changed over, but when Jack hesitated while putting in the next tape, he yelled that he needed to see them all.

* * *

When at last, hours later, static replaced Danny's tortured body on the screen, Danny rose from his bed his face a cold mask of hatred.

Even Sam took a step back at this.

"Vlad is still alive," said Danny. "I tricked him into my cell and phased through the roof. It's right below where Sam found me."

Horrible, and yet strangely pleasurable images filled the mind of all in the room. Just exactly what they would do when they came face-to-face with Vlad.

Danny stood up, and with a flash of light transformed into Danny Phantom. He flexed his arms, luxuriating in the lack of pain the movement inspired. Understanding dawned in the others. He was going to get Vlad. Now.

"Danny, wait-" Maddie started. "We'll get the GAV and we can all go together."

But Danny was already shaking his head.

"This ends now. Follow me if you want. Sam and Tucker can come with me."

He reached out his hands, taking Sam's and Tucker's and they floated out of the room.

Maddie, Jack and Jazz just stood there for a moment, brains struggling to process all that had happened in the last few minutes.

Jazz was the first to come to her senses. "To the GAV!" she yelled, in a reasonable impression of Jack. They raced through the hospital, and threw themselves in the vehicle.

"Just wait till I get my hands on you _Vladimir_…" muttered Jack darkly.

* * *

Danny's eyes tightened as the remains of Vlad's mansion crept into view. The muggy darkness that surrounded it was all too familiar to Sam, in whom the feeling of déjà vu was growing.

"This is it." Said Danny, floating them down to the ground. Indeed, upon closer inspection, Sam could see the tire marks her car had left when she had screeched to a halt.

"You guys stay here- it's too dangerous for you to come." What he didn't say was who would endanger them… Danny himself didn't know what he would do when he saw Vlad. There was no chance in having his friends so close to him in case he flew into a rage.

He cut their protests short, phasing through their grasping hands.

"I'll be back soon."

With that, he sunk through the ground, returning to the scene of his waking nightmare.

* * *

Danny went deeper and deeper, growing more incredulous as he went. Had he really managed to phase through so much dirt during his escape? It was little wonder the special ops teams had been unable to find Vlad's lair.

The lights still shone brightly in the light room. The silver instruments that littered the metal benches and stands were coated in the same dark red substance as the floor and gurney. Bile rose in his throat as Danny realised it was his own blood, layer upon layer dried and hardened. Vlad had never cleaned it up.

Staying in the air, he hovered over the remains of his suffering until he reached the dense metal door of his cell. His thoughts whirled wildly as he drew ever nearer to his tormentor. What would he do to Vlad? What was a suitable punishment? Surely not prison, for with his ghostly abilities it would be too easy to escape. And besides, Vlad deserved worse. Danny clenched his fists as he thought of every moment of torture the monster had put him through. But could Danny kill a man? _He isn't even fully human… I don't think he has a shred of humanity left… _

Steeling himself, he pulled on the handle, and the door swung open on oiled hinges.

* * *

It was truly a dark room. It absorbed the light that should have poured in from the light room, sucking it in until Danny couldn't make out any of its details. He couldn't see Vlad. Summoning an ecto-ball, he held it aloft to penetrate the darkness of the cell.

He saw something in the corner twitch.

Then a dark shape threw itself at him, and instinctively he threw up a shield. The force of the blow knocked him back out the door.

Danny waited in the brightly lit lab for Vlad to come out, shield still up. After an eternity, a figure limped out of the doorway.

It was Vlad. But not the Vlad Danny knew. This Vlad was as emaciated as Danny had been; skin barely stretching over his bones. His eyes were dark beetles deeply sunk into his face. His hair had completely fallen out. Rough burns – probably from the ectoranium coating of the cell door coated his body.

Seeing Danny, he lurched forward, creases forming in his face as he glared malevolently. He pointed a withered hand at Danny, and a pink aura surrounded it. Danny braced himself behind his shield. A thin, pink beam shot at him, but it seemed the effort to create it had been too much for Vlad, and he toppled forward to lie unconscious, on the blood of his enemy.

* * *

Danny just floated for a moment. His enemy was beaten, and he, Danny was triumphant. He picked up Vlad by his collared and hauled his face nearer to his. He raised a green glowing fist, poised to pass it through Vlad's heart. He hovered there, arms shaking as he contemplated what he was about to do. _Go on, _a voice urged, _Do it. Kill him. He deserves this and worse. This is justice. _But he couldn't help but notice how... old Vlad looked. And sick. Danny recalled the madness he had often seen swirling in the half-ghost's eyes. Was it justice to kill a man for his insanity?

"No." Said Danny aloud. To no-one. To himself. "I won't be a murderer. There is another solution."

He took Vlad with him into the main entrance of the cave, eyes scanning the many luminous buttons that covered the walls. He finally found the one he was looking for. Self destruct. He pushed it and phased himself and Vlad upwards as the monotonic computer voice began a countdown. _10… 9… 8…_

* * *

Tucker and Sam looked up in surprise as Danny appeared before them, clutching a bald and extremely thin old man, who looked like he'd also been tortured. Sam was about to ask what this poor old man had done to invoke the wrath of Vlad Masters when she realised the tatty, worn and bloodstained remains the man wore were the same as the suit Vlad wore. It _was_ Vlad.

Her eyes popped, and she quickly looked to Danny to assess his mood, and to see if he'd been hurt in any way. He appeared fine, his expression calm and determined.

"What are you going to do, Danny?" She asked.

Danny opened his mouth to answer, when the GAV came screaming over the hill and skidded to a halt inches from the group. The other Fenton's jumped out.

"I'm taking him to the Fenton portal. We're going to remove his ghost powers."

****

Dun dun dun… Sorry for taking so long to update… I really have no excuse… I did make this one longer than normal, so hopefully you can all forgive me. Review please! Did anyone feel sorry for Vlad? Or did you all think he got his just desserts?

**Blondine**


	8. Chapter Eight

Danny's Eidetic

Chapter Eight

The journey back to Amity Park was too long for Danny. His parents had insisted on him coming in the GAV with them, but even Jack's reckless pace was too slow for Danny. Maddie argued that it would be too dangerous for Danny to be alone with Vlad, for even though the Fenton's most hated enemy was barely alive, there was no way any of them were going to risk a repeat of what had happened to Danny.

Jack jabbed a long hypodermic syringe into Vlad's arm – none too gently. It contained a tranquilizer, and only a tranquilizer because although Jack yearned to stab him full of much more harmful toxins he loved his son too much to go against his wishes. Vlad now lay on the floor of the GAV, ghost-proof cuffs chaining him to the vehicle and a Specter Deflector firmly fixed around his waist. The journey was a silent one, everyone wrapped up in their thoughts, their imaginings. Danny rode with his eyes shut and his face buried into Sam's side. Sam had the fingers of one hand clenched in his hair, the other holding his hand in a vice-like grip. One that she didn't plan on breaking anytime soon.

Tucker was leaning against a weapons case, his eyes trained on Vlad, following every movement his body made in response to the moving vehicle. His eyes were red and had deep bags beneath them, and in the fluorescent lighting he looked ghostly and pale. Jazz sat next to him, unconsciously leaning on him and staring at Danny with her head tilted. Anyone who knew Jazz would've recognised this pose from when she psychoanalyzed someone. There was a deep frown on her face – from either frustration or confusion.

Maddie and Jack were in the front seat, silently working together to get them all to Fenton Works as soon as possible. Maddie had a map open, and was pointing Jack in the fastest route home, while her husband tore up the sidewalk and narrowly avoided pedestrians in his attempts to follow her.

* * *

At last they pulled up at the Fenton home. It was truly a sight for sore eyes for Danny, who had not been there for a very long time but the situation gave him little time to muse over the moment. Not wanting to be shocked by the Deflector Vlad now wore; Danny waited until his father hefted the half-ghost from the floor and proceeded to carry him inside.

Downstairs, the Fenton lab was a picture of domestic cleanliness - weapons littering the floor, bits and pieces tossed to the ground and shoved away in frustration as the ghost hunters sought a way to find their son. The portal sat unobtrusively behind it all, its dim green glow casting eerie shadows over the group. Tucker was already instructing Maddie on how to format the portal to remove ghostliness when Danny and Sam came down the stairs hand-in-hand. Although normally this would've called for a love-bird comment, and his mouth opened automatically to utter one, he evidently decided that now was not the time, and his mouth snapped back shut.

The portal flickered and died as Maddie removed the primary power source, and sparked dangerously as the plugged it back in. Jack dumped Vlad's body unceremoniously inside and stood back.

They all looked to Danny.

Kissing Sam on the forehead, he picked up a long pole and strode forward.

"Scoot back, guys." He said softly. They did.

He took a deep breath and stabbed the ON switch within the portal.

There was a great flash of light, and an image of Danny's silhouette before a white orb was burnt into their eyes.

The screams came a second later.

These satisfied Jack and Maddie, who had wanted so badly to hear Vlad scream, to hear his pain as he suffered for what he had done to their son.

The screaming went on and on, becoming more and more high-pitched until Tucker snickered, his mind ticking over images that involved Vlad and pink dresses.

Finally it ended, and the light died. A dark shape was flung out and crashed into Danny, who having been flung from the portal this very same way many a time was ready to catch him.

The man who came out was very different from the waif-like half-ghost who had gone in. For a start he was awake, and making sure they were all well aware of it. He swore and yelled and tried to pummel Danny, but in his weakened state and without the added strength of ghost powers he was no match.

Then he passed out from exhaustion.

* * *

When Vlad woke up three weeks later, he was in a guarded room and handcuffed to the bed. He had spent the time being intravenously feed, and had regained much of his former bulk although his skull remained free of even a hint of hair.

He looked down at the measly _metal _cuffs around his wrists, and laughed aloud at the stupidity of the police. They _knew_ he had ghost powers and they didn't even bother using ghost-proof cuffs? The police force really were getting less intelligent. Without a second thought he made to phase through them, but to his astonishment nothing happened. Perhaps they were special cuffs, something the Fenton's had designed – his clever Maddie perhaps, that appeared normal and that he was unable to sense.

That wouldn't matter however, because Vlad knew that when he transformed into his ghost half his superior strength would allow him to rip the bars of the bed he was in to get free. And so he dug inside himself to find the ice cold core that allowed him to shift forms. It wasn't where it normally was. Frowning, he searched his consciousness for even a glimmer of coolness. Nothing. That was when he really started to panic. Since college he had carried this ice core around with him, this knowledge that he was different, special. And now it was gone. He felt … empty without it. It was a void that could not be filled with money and possessions, but a void to be filled with power and strength. How had he lost it?

He strained to remember his last moment before waking up. There had been a lot of pain, he remembered, and a light so bright even the memory of it hurt his eyes. Had he died?

Just then, the door to the room opened, and Danny entered. _Danny._ Physically, he was perfectly healthy, his body in peak condition. But one had only to look into his eyes to know that mentally it was another story. So the little badger had done this to him. He had survived his escape, and obviously recalled his past and done something with Vlad's ghost powers.

Without a word, the boy sat down in the chair beside Vlad. His hands twitched around a green glowing device in his hands.

* * *

Danny stared at Vlad, who stared right back at him. A glare of contempt, of hate, of pain, of anger and of a lifetime of missed opportunities. What could Vlad have become without his lust for power or the driving evil of his ghost side to propel him into misdeed? Did he deserve a second chance?

And what if Danny could give him that second chance. Would he? Should he?

"We removed your ghost half."

"You… what??"

"We took it away. You're just a normal human being now." _Just the normal kind of bad guy._

"I… You… YOU TOOK MY GHOST POWERS!? _Badger!!_" Danny flinched at the name.

"Be quiet Vlad. You abused the power and I removed it from you. Would you rather be dead?"

Silence.

"I have an offer to make."

More silence.

"I can take away your memories. Forever. You can start a new life. A free life. You have a new face that no-one could recognise. A second chance to live, Vlad."

More silence, then: "Why are you doing this?"

Danny wasn't quite sure what to say. How did one explain to someone as twisted as Vlad the idea of forgiveness?

"Because I can. Because I'm a hero."

The room was quiet. Vlad's eyes were fixed on the opposite wall.

"Think about it. I'll be back tomorrow for your answer."

And with that he swept out of the room.

* * *

Danny flew home slowly, enjoying the feeling of the air against his skin. _Why are you doing this?_ Yes he was a hero, but for how long? How long until the poison of his enemies ran into him? What happened when he became the villain? Seeing Vlad in the bed, strong and healthy – no longer the weak remnant he had phased out of the cave – had made it difficult to remember exactly why he didn't want to beat the older man to death.

The memories of his torment had flashed through his mind – the true pain of them kept at bay by the medication his mother had created for him. This man roused such anger, such pain in him that Danny was itching to kill him. How long before his lust to kill Vlad became a lust to kill? How long till Danny became the murderer?

The scars that Vlad had left went deeper than the skin.

He twirled the glowing green cube around in his hands. It was something his father had developed. It was supposed to confuse a ghost by making them forget why they had left the ghost zone, thus incapacitating them until they could be sucked into a thermos. In actuality, it removed every memory in a beings brain – and not just ghosts, humans too. For this reason, it had been kept safely in their lab, for should they ever miss their intended target and hit an innocent bystander there would be no restoring their memory. It was permanent and irreversible.

What he hadn't actually told Vlad was that once his memory had been erased, he would have to relearn everything – how to walk, talk, count, eat… He would be reduced to the innocence of a newborn child. Made pure again. And then… maybe then… Danny could truly forgive him. And not be a murderer. Not have these horrible thoughts.

When he arrived home, he phased silently into his room. These were the very same thoughts that had plagued him since the removal of Vlad's ghost half. They were the thoughts that had led to the rotten feeling inside. The deep, dark pit of despair that filled him ever up and sapped his strength. The self-loathing of what he could become. What he was becoming.

He stared, unseeing at the covered up mirror on his desk. He couldn't bear to look upon any reflective surface. He was afraid of what he would see, of who he would see. He was afraid to see Dan, looking right back at him.

He had carefully avoided letting his parents know the conflict that was going on inside him. His mother had interpreted his dark moods and altered personality as post-traumatic stress, and had devised a drug to keep the pain of his memories at bay so that he could deal with them when he was ready. His father was too… oblivious to notice any perceptible change in his son. Luckily Jazz had returned to college for her insight and love of observation would've told her there was a problem long ago. Tucker was similarly occupied – he had a responsibility as mayor of Amity Park and only managed to visit every few days.

Sam, whom he might have been able to seek help from, he kept at a distance. He didn't want her to hurt with him. And so he put on a façade around her, smiling and pretending to be the old Danny Fenton she had known. He sometimes thought she saw through this though – she'd flinch and look at him out of the corner of her eye whenever a particularly dark thought entered his mind.

And through the heavy depression that settled in long ago, Danny constructed a plan.

No more pain for him. No more pain for his family. No more pain for his friends. No more pain for Sam.

He received a sharp jolt as he stabbed the stolen Plasmius Maximus into his leg. Now his ghost powers couldn't save him. He slipped the noose around an exposed beam and pushed a chair underneath.

He took a deep breath.

* * *

Not far away, Sam was preparing a faceless lunch. She was worrying about Danny, about the feelings of negativity that she sometimes felt rolling of him. It was almost like the impressions of him that she'd been getting while Vlad had had him.

Vlad had damaged Danny's mind down in that cave. He'd taken her best friend and love and broken him.

It came out of no where. One moment she was cutting lettuce, the next she was standing in his room. She saw with horrified eyes as he slipped a noose around his neck and kicked the chair away. She couldn't move. She couldn't scream. Neither could he. His throat strained, and his fingers tore at the rope around it, but nothing could shift it. Then he was still.

Sam screamed as she re-entered her body. She tore outside, in the direction of Danny's house, hoping against hope that she wasn't too late. She ran through the open door, barrelled into his astonished parents and flung herself up the stairs.

The corridor to his room seemed to stretch unimaginably, and no matter how fast she ran, his door didn't seem to be getting any closer. She finally reached it, curling her fingers around the handle and wrenching it open.

She walked in just as he dropped.


	9. Chapter Nine

Danny's Eidetic

Chapter Nine

They say that when you die, your life flashes before your eyes. And so it did for Danny Fenton, as a rough noose pulled ever tighter at his neck. He saw and felt the unbearable agony – both mental and physical – that had filled his life recently. But this was nothing compared to the pain he was in now. Time stretched, and his mind roved over the memories that came before that time. The great memories, and the not-so-great. The look on his mother's face after discovering his secret. The love and hope he saw in her eyes. He remembered quiet moments alone with Sam, snuggled on a couch together and just enjoying the warmth of each others' bodies.

He remembered the day he got his ghost powers, the awesome feeling of power and strength running through his veins, the fear that came with it.

He remembered stuffing his face with highly processed meaty burgers with Tucker at the Nasty Burger. How Tucker had commented on just what Sam would say if she knew how many cows gave up their lives to feed the two of them.

He recalled the strength it had taken to tell Sam how he felt, but how much better he had felt afterwards. The joy and happiness he had shared with her since then.

Had he not proved, time and time again, that he had strength? And so why had he shied away from his own twisted thoughts? Could he not conquer his own mind? Had he let it drive him into death?

__

Oh God, Danny thought _I don't want to die._

****

Too late his mind replied **you should've thought about that**_** before**_** you hung yourself.**

And yet, if he was dead, why did he still exist? Danny had never been a believer in Heaven or Hell – proof of a different sort of afterlife continually flew through the portal a few floors below. Was it possible though, that he had ended up in Hell? Suicide was definitely one of the things that got you sent down there.

It would explain the agony he was in now, too. He felt like his body was being ripped in half. _Eternal torture. Eternal damnation. This is my thanks for saving the world?_

Although, when he squinted his eyes, all he could see was darkness. No fiery pits of doom, no satanic devils with whips and forked tails. Where was he?

He floated there for a long time, and as he did, he felt the pain lessening. A sort of numbness was spreading through his body, a sense of peace. As he waited for something to happen, he contemplated his life. Danny wasn't normally the deep and sincere person that would do this – but hey he didn't used to be suicidal either – and there was nothing better to do.

If only he _hadn't _removed his ghost-powers. He would've had a chance then. He could've made it through. Talked his issues out with his family. Avoided Vlad altogether. Spent some more time with Sam. As if in a dream, he saw what they could have been. Married. Children. He almost wept as tiny little Goth children flew past him.

He'd had his whole life, his whole future ahead of him and he'd thrown it all away. Didn't he have a choice? Could he not choose to stay a hero?

* * *

He didn't notice his surroundings changing until a bright light began to sparkle before him. _Do not walk into the light!_ He could just see Tucker saying that – a favourite line of his from the movie 'Poltergeist'. Danny frowned. The white light was supposed to be death, so was he not dead yet? The light was drawing nearer, and Danny was powerless to resist its pull. He looked back behind him, into the swirling blackness. Life was back that way, and he was leaving it faster than ever.

He kicked and struggled, trying to move away from the light. The pain was all gone now, and that gave him strength and cleared his mind. But it was no use. Finally, exhausted, he gave up. What was the point? The light was so near it was blinding, and Danny had to shut his eyes to protect them from its burning brilliance. _Goodbye._

Sweet music and snatches of soft conversation filled his ears. The peace and serenity that flowed from the light was undeniable, and Danny smiled in response.

Then he felt a hefty tug in the opposite direction.

"DON'T YOU DARE GIVE UP ON ME DANNY FENTON!"

"Sam…?"

* * *

Sam had rushed into his room just as he dropped to the ground. She heard his neck give a nasty cracking noise, and his head fall forwards.

"DANNY!!!" she screamed, rushing towards him. The next few minutes were a blur for her. She knew that she had tried to hoist him high enough to take the strain of the rope off his body, but even the adrenaline pouring through her veins couldn't make up for her diminutive height. She knew that Maddie had come in, drawn by her screams, and that the woman had used some sort of ecto weapon to burn the rope down. Danny had dropped into her arms.

Then somehow, Jack was there, pumping Danny's chest with his huge hands.

Sam had sobbed alone on the floor until Maddie had come over and put her arms around her. She said something, but the words were lost and all Sam could hear were Danny's screams, echoing around in her head. Maddie shook her, hard.

"Sam, snap out of it! He's still breathing! If we can keep his heart beating till his ghost powers come back he can heal himself."

That had caught her attention. She watched Jack as he continued to pump steadily on his sons tiny chest, as Jazz checked that Danny was still breathing, as Maddie dug her fingers into her arm to stop herself from crying.

It was going to be a very long three hours.

* * *

After two hours and forty five minutes, Jack was still going. The man never seemed to tire, and not once had he asked for fudge.

But then Jazz paled even further.

"He's not breathing!"

Sam moved automatically over, and brought her lips down over his. She pushed air into his lungs, forced him to breathe. She watched as the air rushed back out again. She paused as she waited for him to take the next breath. Nothing. She clamped her mouth down on his once again. And again. Before long she was panting.

And Danny still wasn't breathing.

"DON'T YOU DARE GIVE UP ON ME DANNY FENTON!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

* * *

Oh, cliffy! REVIEW!!


	10. Chapter Ten

Danny's Eidetic

Chapter Ten

The pull grew stronger and stronger, until he was catapulted through the darkness, leaving the bright light far behind. Memories stabbed him like shards of glass, and yet this filled him with joy. Who was he without his memories, how could he be a hero, without the wisdom of years behind him?

Pain was building throughout his body. It was mortal agony. He felt as if his flesh was being burnt off his bones, as if his eyeballs were being squeezed out of their sockets, as if someone was hammering on his skull with a mallet.

For strength, he thought of Sam. He strove through his heart until he found the brilliant darkness that was all hers. And, boy, did he need her now. His blood was fire in his veins, a thousand needles were stabbing into his neck. He half-wished he could return to the bright light, where all his pain was gone. Where he was happy and safe. None of this heart-wrenching agony.

Suddenly before him, he saw a spinning vortex of green energy, not unlike the ghost portal. The same unearthly force propelled him through. There was a flash of white light, and he was thrown onto the floor.

* * *

Danny's face was turning blue. And there was nothing she could do. Jack was still pumping hard on his chest, forcing his heart to pump blood through his body. Maddie had taken over pushing air into his lungs.

He was still completely unresponsive. Jazz had shone a light onto his eyes, to see if his pupils would dilate. Nothing.

And now this.

She glanced at her watch. How long ago had Danny shocked himself with the Plasmius Maximus? It couldn't be too much longer now. Tears blurred her vision, and her clock face swam out of focus.

She could barely bring herself to look at him. He lay there, pale, body jolting to the rhythm of Jack's pumping. Sam glanced over to Jazz, and received a shock. The girl looked like she was having a silent mental breakdown. She sat in the corner of the room, on the floor. Her mouth was quivering, moving, but no sound came out. Her cheeks were wet with tears. But it was her eyes that scared Sam the most. They were completely blank, unfocused – a world away.

How could he do this? How could he kill himself? _No, he's not dead yet. _Sure, he was stuffed up from what Vlad had done to him, but he had seemed to be getting over it. After all he'd been through, wasn't he allowed to be morose and miserable sometimes? She'd thought that he could talk to her, sort things out. Get his head in the right place. She'd been wrong.

She, Sam Manson, had failed the one person she cared more about than the entire world.

And so she put her face in her hands and cried.

* * *

When Danny opened his eyes, he was in a different world. But a world he knew. He was in his parents lab, down in the basement. _How did I end up here?_ He pushed himself onto his feet, and it was at that moment that he noticed something wrong. He was transparent.

Horrified, he waved his hand in front of his face, only to find he could still see the lab through it. And he was in his ghost form. His white gloves were see-through but unmistakable. _Oh God, _he thought _I've come back as a ghost. I'm dead._

And then he felt it. Though he could see nothing touching him, he felt an enormous pressure heave down on his chest, followed by a sharp pain in the region of his chest. He gasped. There was a short pause before another of the blows came, bringing with it more pain. His chest inflated with the next one, and he experienced the brief sensation of suffocation. With a cry, he wrapped his insubstantial arms around his chest, to try and ward off the pain. So much pain…

He ran upstairs, desperate for help. Surely his dad would be in the kitchen, munching on fudge if he wasn't in the lab working on a new experiment.

The kitchen was deserted. Not just that, it looked like whoever had last occupied it had left in a hurry. There was a half eaten box of fudge on the counter, and the early preparations for dinner on the unlit stovetop. There was even an open psychology book on the couch – and Jazz never left those lying around. And lastly, and most alarmingly, the front door was wide open, giving an uninterrupted view of the street outside.

Where was everyone?

Then he heard voices upstairs. Quiet, intense voices, and was someone crying?

He felt a tug at his legs, directing him upstairs, pulling him literally.

He walked down the hall silently, his bare feet not even making a whisper of sound as his neared his bedroom.

__

Oh no…

He thought he knew what he'd find in that room. After all, it had been too much to hope for to be alive. He would see his body, and know finally that he was dead.

He walked through the open door into a scene from a nightmare.

* * *

There's a certain atmosphere to a room, a sense of life, a spark, that makes it seem friendly and alive. This room had none of that. The air was so still and thick that Danny felt as if he was wading through water just to get nearer.

He saw his huge father, bent over something, moving up and down. With the same rhythm as the pain in Danny's chest he noted abstractly. He saw his legs poking out one end of his father, and a tiny patch of green at the other end that suggested his mother was near his head. That patch of colour became a cloud of brown hair at the same moment the suffocating feeling clamped down on his lungs.

His sister was sitting in the corner, looked dreadful. He shuddered. He'd done that to her. It was his fault.

Then he saw Sam. _Oh, Sam. _She was sitting by his head, crumpled over and sobbing with force.

No one had noticed him yet.

Strangely, he couldn't bear to intrude on the agony that filled the room, to clear his throat and inform them all of his presence.

Instead, an oddly morbid thought entered his mind, a yearning to see the face of his death.

He padded silently over to his feet.

It was a shock. Possibly the greatest shock he'd ever received in his life - it was worse than meeting Dan. He looked terrible. His skin was waxen, and a deadly shade of blue. His mouth was red, and as he watched, his mother bent over and forced air through his lips. He felt that same drowning feeling as she did so. Weird. There was a thick welt around his neck – from the rope he assumed, which was lying innocently on the floor next to him, singed and blackened. His shirt had been ripped off his chest, giving him full view of the huge black and purple bruise that was forming on the centre of his chest. Then his father's big meaty hands closed over the bruise and with effort, pressed down. Danny clutched his own chest. It felt like having a sledgehammer battering his chest.

How was he feeling this all? It was almost like an out-of-body experience, he was after all floating above his own dead body. _And yet,_ thought Danny, catching a glimpse of the setting sun through his window, _it's been hours since I hung myself, surely they wouldn't still be doing CPR on my __**corpse**__?_

So maybe he _was_ still alive. But if that was the case, how was he supposed to get back into his body. He poked his own fleshy leg. His hand went right through.

"Dad?" He ventured, deciding he would have to get a bit of guidance from a ghost expert. His father ignored him. "Dad, I'm sorry. I know you're really upset and mad at me, but I just want to get back in my body. I want to live."

Jack didn't answer.

"Dad?!" Danny waved his hand in front of his father's face. No response. _I guess no one can see me. Then again – I can't really see me either._

He sighed at the sheer hopelessness of the situation. He was going to watch himself die, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Then his jaw dropped. He watched his body seize up suddenly, green sparks dancing over his skin. He felt the sparks just as intensely as he remembered in his own insubstantial flesh. The Plasmius Maximus had worn off. The blue colour to his skin faded, and as he watched, his body gave a shuddering gasp all on its own. The change in the atmosphere of the room was immediate. His mom even looked like she might smile.

And then, before his eyes, his almost transparent body solidified, like coalescing mist. It wasn't a real looking as his ghostly form was – but it was an improvement.

The moment was broken by Sam's blood-curdling scream.

* * *

I watched in astonishment as green sparks jumped all over Danny's body. It had seemed like the Plasmius Maximus was never going to wear off. The blue colour of his skin was changing, becoming the usual slightly pallid tone that he wore year-long. And then he breathed. All by himself.

There are no words to explain how happy I was in that moment. Danny was alive. He was going to make it. He'd wake up soon. He'd smile at me again. Tell me he loved me.

It was then that I noticed a pair of white boots hovering in the edge of my vision. _What…?_ I looked up. _NO!_ Danny Phantom was floating there, watching his body. I could almost see through him to the wall behind. I looked down at the body in front of me. Danny the human, lying there near death. Danny the ghost up there. Two Danny's. A body and a ghost. _Oh my god, he's dead._

She screamed.

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REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ; )


	11. Chapter Eleven

Danny's Eidetic

Chapter Eleven

"SAM?!?!" Maddie yelped, as the girl's screams threatened to take away her ability to hear.

She looked up from her son, to see… her son.

"Danny?" Her mind was too shocked to process what she was seeing. The fear and grief she had felt for the last two hours came crashing down on her. The room spun, a heavy weight pressed down on her, and she fainted.

* * *

Sam's screams cut out as his mother sank to the floor. Danny leapt forward to catch her before she hit her head. To his utter surprise, she passed right through his hands.

"Danny?" Sam's voice was quavering. He turned to look at her, her horror reflected in his eyes. "Damn it Danny! How could you do this! I loved you!" She punched his body in her grief. In the same movement, she lifted his head off the ground and brought her lips to his.

* * *

The sudden intensification of the pull Danny had been feeling was surreal. At the speed of a plummeting space-craft he was propelled into his body. His spirit slammed into his corporeal flesh, and his eyes opened.

* * *

There was a moment of disorientation. The world seemed sort of blurry… but the colours were stronger, brighter. The pain that screamed through every nerve ending was phenomenal, each hurt his body had sustained crying for attention. Then there was the altered point of view. He realised he was lying on the floor, with his mothers motionless body next to him. But leaning over him was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. The only person he wanted to be with, the person he had returned from death itself to be with.

"Sam."

He weakly reached up a hand to stroke her cheek. Tears welled in her eyes as she did the same, her fingers shaking on his face.

Then the pain reached its peak, and with a groan Danny succumbed to the waiting darkness that was not death, but rest.

* * *

Sam watched as Danny's eyes fluttered closed, and at long last he slept. She breathed an exhausted sigh of relief, and wiped the tears off her face with her fist. With a slightly hysterical laugh, she pulled Danny towards her and hugged him as tightly as she could.

It wasn't until she looked up from Danny that she noticed the odd situation with the other occupants of the room. Maddie was still out cold, but Jack and Jazz were both just sitting there, identical looks of shock on their faces, their mouths shaped like little O's. In any other situation, Sam would've laughed, and waited for Tuck to make some sort of witty remark.

Instead she settled for burying her face into Danny's soft hair, soaking it with her tears. _He's alive. _She thought. _And if he's alive, I can survive._

* * *

Okay so it's MAJORLY short… but I really felt I had to update, even if it was just a bit so try not to kill me. Review and tell me what you think and I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

**Blondine**


	12. Epilogue

Danny's Eidetic

Chapter Twelve

__

One year later

Sam sighed. She fidgeted with the neckline of her graduation robes, wishing they were any color but black. The whole point of wearing black was to be non-conformist and different, and yet here she was, standing in the mass of black robes that made up her graduating senior year.

Her eyes scanned the crowd as she searched for a familiar face – but to no avail – her classmates all looked like clones dressed as they were, though Sam knew she'd be able to find Tucker if she listened hard enough for the rapid tapping of keys. Only Tuck wouldn't let such an insignificant event such as graduation stop him from maintaining his online reputation.

She had just given up and was about to sit down when she felt a dull chill waft from behind her, blowing wisps of hair into her face. Her expression was transformed into one of joy, leaving her dark hair and eye makeup the only indication of her Gothic preferences. Sam threw herself into Danny's arms just as the white rings washed over him, revealing a similar black satin outfit.

She looked into his eyes, gauging his mood. A lot had happened since that fateful day so long ago. Danny had received therapy sessions every day for three months, sorting out the issues that had led to his attempted suicide. He had learnt to trust himself again. Vlad had declined having his memory removed, and in fact (although Sam didn't _really _want to admit it) he had seen himself to blame for what had happened to Danny, and as the older half-ghost's mind healed, he choose to exile himself to prison, as a sort of self punishment.

Danny had eventually returned to school, where he was forced to invisibly enter, to escape the hordes of reporters desperate to know about his absence from the town for so many months and to learn something more about what had become a very public disappearance. With the help of extra tutoring from Mr. Lancer – to make up for both the time at school he missed while en absentia and while ghost fighting, Danny got the credits he needed to graduate.

And so here he was – a different person to the boy that had been kidnapped off the street and tortured, a boy that had been driven to the brink of death and back. You could see it in his eyes – a quiet sadness that burned behind the icy blue. But did he look… nervous? Was there something…? No, Sam dismissed it as nerves and excitement for this ceremony and all it meant.

Danny grabbed her hand and phased them through the crowd, searching for Tucker so that they could say hi before the awarding started. But no sooner had they found him and exchanged greetings than Mr. Felucca called the graduates to line up alphabetically, and so they parted.

* * *

Danny's thoughts were far from where he was. Even as his name was called and even as he walked on stage – grinning – to be handed his diploma his mind was elsewhere. It was focused deeply on a time in the near future, and on the object that was weighing down his left pocket like a pound of lead.

He waved to his parents – "That's my boy, Danny!" and "Oh Danny, you did it!" amid the cheers and flashing lights from the hundreds of cameras packed into the room. As if in a dream he passed by the hordes of reporters waiting to bombard him and waited at the base of the stage for just a moment to cheer as Tucker received his diploma and drew nearer. The two shared an identical grin as Tuck cocked an eyebrow and Danny tapped his left pocket in response.

They moved to stand with their fellow classmates until everyone had had their turn onstage. Mr. Lancer gave a short speech, and as it concluded a large cheer went up and as one the graduates threw their large black hats into the air and threw themselves into each other's arms.

And as the parents converged Danny whispered quietly in Sam's ear as he transformed and flew her into the sky.

* * *

To Danny's delight she looked utterly surprised – she clearly had no idea what was happening as they flew further and further away from the city, leaving the tall buildings behind. As they finally began to descend the look on Sam's face became comical, as she took in the sculpture before her. Thousands of red roses, frozen in crystal clear ice formed one enormous rose – and they were about to land in the centre of it.

Danny had spent the entire day working on it – in fact he had nearly missed the start of the graduation ceremony in order to keep it from melting in the warm breeze. As they landed he turned their gowns intangible, which fell to the ground to reveal Sam in the red and black dress that she had planned to wear to the after-party, and Danny in an immaculate tux.

He reached into his pocket, and got down on one knee.

"Samantha Manson," he said in confident tones. "Will you marry me?"

**THE END**

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**It's finally finished! Sorry it took so long to finally write this epilogue but life kinda got in the way... Good news though! I'm off to med school this year! YAY! Hope this wasn't a too soppy ending - I wanted it at least to be happy. **

**REVIEW PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE!!**

**Blondine**

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